The invention relates to conductor claws, particularly for electrical connectors made of stamped sheet metal, of the type having a bottom with claw arms extending outwardly therefrom to both sides.
Known conductor claws for electrical connectors made of stamped sheet metal are usually bent to have a generally U- or V-shape and generally have an insulation part and a conductor wire part, with each claw part having a bottom adjoined at both sides thereof by claw arms or claw-arm-like extensions. In the production of the claws, the ends of the claw arms are stamped in such a manner as to form stamped points. Thereafter, the fashioning is performed, in which the conductor claw parts are bent to have approximately a U-shape with arms pointing slightly outward. To fasten them to electrical conductors, the conductor claws are deformed further, preferably to have an M-crimp, with the insulation part embracing the insulation of the conductor and the conductor wire part embracing the conductor wire. The stamped points at the ends of the claw arms penetrate into the insulation or into the conductor wire, as the case may be, and in this way anchor the electrical connector to the electrical conductor wire or, alternatively, the conductor wire claw establishes the electrical contact.
Because of the preselected shape for the conductor claw, the fastening of the electrical connector requires relatively powerful fastening tools. Additionally, the dies of these tools are subject to considerable wear; this is because the pointed ends of the claw arms, produced by upset stamping, slide along the die surface and become upset back toward the bottom of the claw before they are actually rolled in to form the M-crimp.